I was a little surprised by the response to my last post in which I solicited reader questions using a video blog (vlog). The comments drifted away from reader questions into opinions about vlogs and why people do or don’t like them.
Interesting.
Here I thought that vlogging was just another tool in the social media arsenal, only to discover that there’s anti-vloggers.
It reminded me of when I used to rail against Twitter.
One commenter summed up the anti-vlog sentiment by simply saying, “I don’t do vlogs.” I had to check to make sure I wasn’t talking about smoking chronic, watching internet porn, or human trafficking. I “don’t do” those things either. But vlogs? Eh.
Anyway, it was a minor revelation. I used to think the dislike of vlogs was mainly on the blogger’s end, not the reader’s (or viewer’s). I mean, making a vlog requires certain technical skills, equipment, and software. It also involves time. Between scripting (if one does script), filming, uploading, editing, and embedding a finished product on a website, vlogging can be tedious and time-consuming. All that to say, I can understand why some bloggers would be reluctant to vlog.
What I don’t understand is why readers would be reluctant to view video blogs. Unless there is some kind of telepathic message being secretly transmitted through your computer screen, what’s the issue?
- It’s a video.
- It’s a video of someone talking.
- It’s a video of someone you probably read, talking.
- It’s a video of someone you probably read talking about something you might be interested in.
Sure. It might be a vlog from someone you don’t read, whom you’ve never heard of, talking about something you don’t give a rip about (or doing something exotic like seeing how many pool balls they can insert in their mouth). But last I checked, you’re free to watch as long or as little as you like.
Either way, it’s not the medium that’s the issue.
I’m assuming that readers — as in “those who prefer written stuff” — still watch TV, movies, or an occasional video podcast. So unless one is a Luddite, what good reason is there to dislike vlogs?
Like a lot of things that come through the interweb, it can turn faddish and be used poorly. I mean, just because you have a webcam and a guitar is not a good reason to vlog. And just because other people are vlogging is not a good reason to do it either.
But simply “being a reader” is not a good reason to not “do vlogs.”
I don’t like vlogs because it takes longer than reading the blog posts. I can skim a blog post and know if I really want to read it. With a vlog, there’s no way of knowing if it’s useful or not unless you take the time to listen to the whole thing. For the record, I did listen to your vlog yesterday, but it was the exception, not the rule.
Depends on the length of the vlog (if it really takes longer than reading a blog post). And what if the blog post is long? Also, what if the vlogger gets to their point right away? Does that make it “useful”? You won’t know until you click play.
BTW, thanks for watching my last video. 😉
LOL ! If the blog post is long, unless it’s spectacularly interesting, it gets skimmed. If I have time, I’m willing to give your vlogs a chance because I like reading your blog posts. Some days I don’t have time to even read the blogs I follow, or at least not all of them. So, I pick and choose – the ones that make me think are always at the top of my list.
I don’t dislike vlogs but sometimes they cramp my style. 🙂 If I want to pop over to someone’s blog at work to see if anything new has posted, a vlog appears as a big box on my screen with the words “You don’t have rights to access…”
Another reason I’ll skip watching a vlog is if I’m pressed for time. I can skim text very quickly for things that catch my interest. I may start reading on paragraph three and start working my way up. Perhaps I’m weird that way, but I’ve learned it mostly out of necessity. With a vlog, I have to start from the beginning and wait patiently for the blogger’s thoughts and opinions to come at me in a linear fashion. They may have something interesting to say at the end, but if the beginning doesn’t grab me, I won’t make it to the end. The timer at the bottom of the screen starts to psych me out. (3 more minutes? Do I have 3 more minutes to spare?)
A vlog is different than TV or a movie. It’s meant to impart knowledge more than entertain. And fact is, sometimes a two minute video takes a lot more time to watch than it would take to skim text for the main points. A sad commentary of our “I want it now” culture perhaps, but it could also be viewed as a survival mechanism.
That said, I like the idea of an occassional vlog. It’s good to put a face to the words. The internet is an odd way to get to know people, but it works. I’ve made many friends this way. Seeing someone’s face solidifies the relationship.
Jessica, you’re watching vlogs at work? I “don’t do” that. Sounds like the problem’s with your technical set-up. Sadly, I think many people base their opinions about video blogs on their own computer issues, not the actual medium.
As to being able to “skim text,” I totally agree. Which is why a site that is 100% percent vlogs would not be a regular cyber-stop for me.
No definitely not a work. The video files won’t make it through the firewall. However, given that I sit in front of a computer all day, it’s nice, on a break or for a moment of sanity, to hop over and check out a blog. If I hop over and see a vlog, I have an “aw shucks” moment, cause I know I’ll have to wait until I get home…but odds are I’ll forget about it by then and therefore won’t end up watching it.
In my case it’s mostly technical. I read blogs on my Smartphone using Google Reader most of the time. On this platform a blog shows up as a blank post.
While I am not against vlogs (my husband does them occasionally), I don’t seek them out. And when I follow a link that looks interesting and find I have to watch a video instead of getting text, more times than not I just return to my previous page without bothering. My day job is as a Web designer, and user testing shows that most people skim Web content. Thus, “writing for the Web” entails chunking information, using white space, employing bulleted lists… things that will help people skim text. You can’t do that with videos. You have to watch the whole thing. You can’t skim and pick out the gems. So most of the time, I don’t bother with them. If it’s the only info out there, or is highly recommended, I will, but that’s the exception. And I never seek them out. Now, I’m a 47-year-old who has seen the Web in its infancy, so maybe I’m just behind the curve. But you wanted to hear from folks who dislike vlogs about why, so there it is.
Thanks, SJ. I am definitely a “web skimmer.” But web skimming inevitably leads me to writers / bloggers I like. That’s an argument for text over video, no doubt. However, once I LIKE someone, I am more likely to sink in to their stuff. Vlogging is one a writer / blogger can help their readers do just that. So, on the one hand, vlogging may not win new readers, but it could more deeply engage interested ones.
I have to “ditto” the comments about the time factor. I read much faster than someone in a video can talk. So I end up feeling impatient. I don’t like audiobooks either, btw, for the same reason. It’s not a matter of me not having time to listen to the vlog, but me feeling like I can’t do so at *my* pace. K.M. Weiland posts vlogs all the time, but she puts the transcripts below them and I most often read the transcript instead.
I also agree about the TV is entertainment and the vlog is information thing. Even the news is done “entertainment style” on TV. Vloggers can’t really do that, and most often shouldn’t try ;). Not saying an occasional vlog would be completely unwelcome by me, but I’d probably rather read here.
Hi Kat! As to the Entertainment vs. Information thing: that may be just as much a strength of vlogs as a weakness. Think of it this way: Watching sermons is far better than Reading them. Fire, timing, passion doesn’t translate well to page. Some “Information” is better “fleshed-out.” Might that be true of some “Information” you have as a blogger?
If you were delivering prepared statements to a real, live audience, it might be superior to a transcript. Most Vlogs are a person sitting awkwardly in front of their tripod. I don’t think I’ve ever seen fire, passion, or timing really played out well by someone sitting in front of a laptop webcam. If you prove me wrong, then rock n’ roll and good on you. Just my two cents.
Is the video portion super important to your presentation? Why would a vlog be better then, say, a podcast you record with guests/friends/whatever? Conversation, actual discourse has always been a more interesting audio feed then a single person delivering prepared statements (unless it’s the History of Rome podcast. My only exception and one of my favorites).
SUPER interesting stuff, Mike, especially since I’ve been vlogging as of late. So far, I’ve only posted two vlogs and am going to post my third this Friday. But I’m getting positive responses.
I think, for people who don’t like vlogs….it comes down to time. When we read, we can read at our own pace. We can skim. But when it comes to a vlog, the author is the one who sets the pace and I think that annoys some readers.
Mike, as usual, you raise a good point. It seems that blog readers fall into two camps–those who want to get in/get out/move on and those who not only want to gain information but connect more closely with the person posting.
Where do I fall in this dichotomy? I’m still on the fence, but leaning more and more toward the former camp.
Thanks for sharing, and for opening up this dialogue.
I didn’t watch your vlog. I watched one about a week earlier where the author mentioned this is her first vlog.
The person doing the vlog was boring to listen to. Wasn’t organized. Didn’t sound enthusiastic about her own books. Yes, it was her first time, but there wasn’t any inflection in her voice. So monotone. That ended my watching them.
I’ve seen a few others, but they aren’t professional and come across poorly. I know it’s probably nerves that make some sound contrived. But there are very few times have I enjoyed a vlog. I think it’s hard to make one for most people. And I love the author’s books, so it’s not that I don’t care for their work.
I prefer book trailers.
Linda, not watching vlogs because some are “bad” is like giving up on restaurants because the one around the corner gave you diarrhea. Maybe the “unprofessional” nature of vlogging is actually a good thing. I want to to know something less staged and more natural. Then again, I said “ya know” about a dozen times in my vlog. I thought it was casual, endearing. It was also totally unprofessional. Thanks for commenting!
It’s the time thing for me, too. I can read the content of a post much faster than I can watch the video, especially if you take into account the loading time, etc. Too often vlogs are slow and rambly, unedited, and don’t proffer meaningful information. Oh, and: Long.
I didn’t watch the vlog, I supposed that you accurately summed it up by saying you were soliciting questions to answer in your blog (that was the point, right?). I don’t normally watch videos on blogs I follow, not just vlogs, video clips, too. It just isn’t something I often do. Not that I won’t, just that I don’t. Maybe it’s the desire to skim read, maybe it’s because I’m at work, or don’t want to watch it on my iPhone.
Another thing I didn’t do? I didn’t comment on the vlog or tell you I don’t like them. Just because it isn’t my thing it isn’t my place to tell you not to do it. If enough of your audience liked them and you did them more regularly it would be different. If you did them enough that I felt the need to no longer follow you I might not tell you that was why I stopped following you, unless we build up enough of a relationship that I felt the need to tell you. For the record, you’re nowhere near the level I’d consider that. I have only recently started following you (a few weeks perhaps) and like what I’ve seen so far. I also like the first 5 chapters of your novella and find it compelling even though I haven’t had time to read more.
“But last I checked, you’re free to watch as long or as little as you like.”
Well that’s true but perhaps misses the point. In all the marketing tips that pound us, one of the things you keep hearing is that readers will literally click on a page, spend a few seconds, then zip off to someplace else if it doesn’t grab their attention. ASSUMING the person viewing has a fast computer, they might be able to get the vlog going as quickly as they can start reading, but that’s a big assumption. And I would assume most people like to finish what they start and sometimes following a vlog to it’s dogged end gets tedious. In my limited experience with vlogs in general, the person posting the vlog hasn’t learned that shorter is better.
“I’m assuming that readers — as in “those who prefer written stuff” — still watch TV, movies, or an occasional video podcast.”
There’s that dangerous assuming again. I’m not the norm, but I watch 1-2 hours of TV a week, do an occasional movie, etc. As a rule our society likes media (aka noise) bombardment, but I’m not one of them.
“But simply “being a reader” is not a good reason to not “do vlogs.””
Why do non-vloggers need a reason? As you mentioned at the beginning of the post, folks are free to choose.
“Why do non-vloggers need a reason?” I suppose they don’t. Which is why I’m asking for one. And for the record, I haven’t heard a compelling one yet. If it simply boils down to “preference,” then there isn’t one. Appreciate your comments, Brenda.
I think of vlogs in the same way as blogs. I may or may not have time to read/view. Sometimes, I open tab after tab of vlogs/blogs I want to come back to as I have time throughout the day. As I read or view them, I X them out. Sometimes I don’t come back to them for whatever reason. Vlogs are especially entertaining in their way. They’re a bit of voyeurism–look I get to see the author talking/looking awkward/being silly in their living room or office or front yard.
I confess to not being big on watching vlogs. Like others, I think it is the time thing. Talking is simply a slower way of saying what you want, when I can read much faster.
But I didn’t say that on that thread. I did watch your vlog and thought it good as far as vlogs go. And I don’t at all fault you for wanting to add a mode that obviously some people do enjoy, and possibly extend your reach.
I’ve been contemplating the same thing as well, simply because I know there are people who do like to watch them. And I’ll watch one on occasion. If you’ve never seen it, go to YouTube and search on “Charlie is so cool” and you’ll find a very interesting vlog. Very interesting entry was him reading a section of Twilight. lol. I watched several of his.
But that’s just it. If I don’t feel like watching a vlog, then I don’t watch. No skin off my back if you do one or not. I think it is a good idea simply for extending your reach. And though I don’t tend to watch them a lot, is also why I’m contemplating one for my blog, if I think I can fit it into the scheme of things and it makes sense for me.
I’ll watch vlogs, but rarely. It’s not that I don’t want to watch them, but sometimes, like today, I only have a few minutes to read a blog and the work computer doesn’t have sound; even if it did have sound, it would be disruptive to play it. At night, I might, but again, I read faster than the video plays. So I have no real stance against vlogs. As far as posting them I learned that in order to do so I have to upload to youtube and then post on my blog which takes away the element of surprise. Wordpress doesn’t offer direct upload unless you buy a yearly subscription to allow for it.
Recently, I had Andy Andrews post a guest vlog. So I’m not against them, just not my favorite thing.
Mike, I resent the implication that I am a Luddite solely because I don’t like vlogs. I already gave my answers to your query about your use of vlogs, in which I believed myself as being polite and thoughtful. I thought at that time that I was free to answer you without being insulted. You did solicit our opinions. If you didn’t want our actually truthful responses, you shouldn’t have asked.
As I said in my original response to your query, if a vlog has some interesting information in it, I would like a printed copy of it for my own files plus any particularly interesting comments–both of which I can easily cut-and paste and then I can go back to later to remind myself of all the valuable points made.
For the record I also don’t like author interviews that are produced as just sound, without an accompanying transcript. In fact, while I will watch the occasional vlog from someone interesting and insightful–like you–whose usual blog format is print, I’m unlikely to watch a vlog done by someone in whom I have a marginal interest.
By the way, I do watch very little tv, having only about 3-4 shows that interest me enough to do so. This is not being a Luddite but because most TV today is not worth the trouble . By the same token, the only shows I ever watch on the computer are episodes of favorite shows that I missed.
However, I frequently watch news-related items of live events on my computer. I love the opportunity! Other news I gather on the computer by subscribing to alerts from various papers that I trust, and then following the links to the article. I also use my computer to check out Google News, which I have finely tuned over the years to present subjects in which I have an interest. (Hardly the activity of a Luddite.)
As I wrote originally, I have no problem if you do a vlog as long as you also provide a transcript. In that case, I would watch the vlog first, and then look at the transcript to see if there’s any thought or following comment that I want to transcribe to a private Notepad file. Following that, I would comment to the original entry if I find I have something worth saying.
I’m not sure why I have to explain or justify my personal use of my computer and, as I said up front, I resent you characterizing everyone who isn’t enamored of vlogs in general as in one undifferented bloc of people–especially when you characterize us in the negative. I certainly did not do this with you, when you asked about your use of vlogs in the future.
I am very sorry that we disappointed tou in our reactions. Would you prefer that we lie next time, so as not to hurt your feelings? Lying is a sin the last I heard.
So is anger, for which I will personally have to confess to our Lord.
I’m one of those that doesn’t even look at transcripts. If it’s there, I’ll probably read the transcripts and skip the vlog, but never both.
Sherry, please don’t miss my sarcasm here. I used the term Luddite (originally I used the term “Amish” but changed it), not as a charge, but as a generic term for someone who opposes technology. The guys in my shop still make fun of me for raging against cell phones not six years ago. And to be clear, my last post was not to solicit opinions about vlogs, but questions to vlog about. Either way, forgive me if this sounded like an attack. It wasn’t meant as one.
How is characterizing someone who feels less than favorable toward vlogs as a person “who opposes technology” any different than calling that person a Luddite?
(By the way, did you know that the original Luddites aka saboteurs was a term created for people who did not want technology in the factories in which they were employed? They feared for their jobs, to the extent that a couple workers even went so far as to throw their shoes (“sabots” in French) into the mechanical works to sabotage them.)
I beg the indulgence of my fellow commenters in assuming they all think like me in what I am about to write. Doubtless I’m making an assumption that I shouldn’t you some of you! On behalf of everyone who posted their opinions of/reactions to using vlogs, we are sorry that we misunderstood your original question. I guess reading comprehension isn’t what it used to be, even among inveterate readers, myself included. ;-P
However, you assumed that your faithful readership all liked vlogs. Many of us took pains to undeceive you about that, via expressing our actual reservations about them and the reasons why we feel as we do. So far as I can tell–and I could easily be misremembering some of the comments–no one actually expressed reservations about vlogs with the argument that they are too new fangled i.e. that they are too complicated to use and we don’t want to have to learn how to use them.
Some people mentioned that they had technical problems booting up a vlog on their particular computers but that isn’t the same thing as being opposed to technology. Nor is admitting that their comprehension level is lower when listening than when reading — even in the case of Sunday sermons spoken in person.
I hope sincerely that some of this clarifies why I reacted as I did about your posts. In any case, I am sorry for bringing more heat that light to the conversation.
It doesn’t appear that actual learning or processing methods has yet been mentioned as a reason or preference agaings vlogs. I’m a very hands on, kinesthetic processor, which means I have to be able to interact and engage with whatever it is I’m trying to take in. Words on pages do that for me. I can skim forward and backward and eat up words and come back to where I was if I have to deviate for a moment. For some reason it takes me a lot of time and energy to ‘hear’ a message, unless it is in the form of music. Definitely do not learn from lecture without taking copious notes, usually provided by the instructor. I need the words down in front of me.
I also do not read or listen to things simply for the sake of listening. I can skim a blog and know whether it appeals to me or not. Listening to a message that I’m unclear if it may or may not appeal to me seems a waste of time, which is why I don’t watch TV unless there’s some relevance attached to the program. I’m a voracious learner and incredibly sensitive to all external stimulus; it either equips me with something new or it sucks the life out of me.
I’m mixed on vlogs. First, let’s get my irrational bias out of the way: I can’t stand the term itself. If I hated it just a little more than I do, I’d launch a campaign to get everyone saying “v-logs” instead, which is only marginally better.
Anyway.
As far as content, I agree they can be a good way to change things up, if they are done well. To me, the main criterion for that is whether the vlog accomplishes something that’s better served by video than by text. The foundation of communication theory is that “the medium is the message,” and taking that into account along with many of the comments, a written message is different from a spoken one. The pacing is different, possibly the order in which the information is received is different (if readers are given to scanning ahead and backing up), and perhaps critical, expectations are different. Since most blogs are written, people bring their expectations of a text: correct grammar, logical construction, readable fonts… Arriving at a blog and receiving a vlog instead confronts readers with an entirely different set of cues: conversational grammar, speech construction, and verbal tics that may or may not be annoying in context.
Since I read a lot of writing blogs, I’ll offer this as an example: I think a vlog would be a great way to cover tips on cadence, believable dialogue, or writing characters with accents. (‘Ain’t’ ain’t enough, but droppin’ every g? Discuss.) I also think it is a good medium for messages intending to connect with readers, as you’ve suggested. However, connection goes two ways, and not every blog reader is served by that.
Great comments, Brandy. I dislike the word “vlog” too. But I didn’t like “blog” way back when. Anyway, thanks for participating.
I have the same issue as many have said with the pace and impatience. I also have technical issues many times. If I can’t click it and start right away (no downloading a certain player) I’m not going to bother. I also tend not to use sound when anyone else is in the room (which is almost always), which means I’d have to actually find my headphones to listen to a vlog and really–where ARE those things? I don’t HAVE video software to make a vlog myself, and I don’t like my appearance, so I prefer to hide.
I am not a audio learner. I am a visual learner. I much prefer reading to any kind of sound. I don’t even fully agree that sermons are better recorded on video/audio. If I could get my pastor to PRINT a transcript of his sermons, I guarantee you I could get more out of them than listening to them. One of the main reasons I go to the church I do: Pastor does Powerpoint and follows a visual outline. On the Sundays when he’s on vacation and there’s a guest speaker who doesn’t use the Powerpoint, I struggle to stay awake with only sound to stimulate me while sitting still in a pew.
No professor I ever had in college gave tests on lecture material that wasn’t in the book. Heck, often, the prof WROTE the textbooks! As soon as I discovered I didn’t have to worry so much about lectures because it was all in the book, I was “home free”. Amazing how skipping classes to read the textbooks produced BETTER grades.
And no, I actually do NOT watch very much TV either. I’m simply too hard to entertain. I always feel like the book I am writing or reading is more entertaining than whatever else I could find on the tube.
It’s not a “hate” or a “dislike”, it’s a preference. And in cyberspace, preference is all it takes. Click. I’m off to another page.
I thought I gave sound reasons that were not at all Luddite in nature for why I don’t like them. Others have also expressed similar reasons, including the fact that they can read a lot faster than they can watch a video.
And I don’t want to pick on yours specifically, but I will say this.
When you (or anyone) writes a post, they have time to edit and present exactly right.
In your vlog–as in many of the others I’ve watched, and I’ve watched many many many of them–a bit of nervousness comes across as you hem and umm and uhh and employ nervous tics such as touching your face, looking away from the camera to “snatch a thought out of the air”, etc.
Watching people without video speaking training present in Vlog format is, to me, the video equivalent of reading a blog post full of grammatical errors, rampant misspellings. Yes, it is “just another way to present.” But folks seem to think “hey! I’ve got a camera and a way to instantly broadcast my thoughts while speaking to the camera! Cool! I can Vlog!”
Almost all of us are more visually acclaimated to viewing than we are to reading so we are even more subconciously sensitive to amateur errors in video presentation.
That’s probably why you see so much vitriol directed at vlogs. They make us uncomfortable because we don’t like watching folks channel their nervousness.
I approached that video entirely unscripted, Katherine. Wasn’t nervous at all, just trying to be conversational. Sloppy and bad grammar? Yep. But if we require “video speaking training” for amateur bloggers (like me and you), aren’t we undermining the internet’s most important feature: democracy? Appreciate your comments!
Oh, I don’t REQUIRE anything for anybody. But an important feature of democracy is that everyone gets to vote.
And I’m just explaining why many, many people aren’t “voting” for Video Weblog entries, and it goes far beyond your premise of “you’re just a bunch of Luddite joy-killers.”
LOL…Katherine…had to laugh at your comment that everyone gets to vote. I have to agree…unless it’s done right…it can be pretty bad. However, in all fairness to Mike, I didn’t listen to his Vlog. I got caught up in all the comments.
DO IT!! DO IT!! DO IT!! DO IT!!
To show how much of a Luddite I am, I never HEARD the term “vlog” until today (and yes, my last novel was sent to my publisher chiseled in stone by a pterodactyl’s beak, a la Flintstone-style).
Beyond that, I have no comment. Now I must put on my spats and straw boater, and head down the Emporium for a cherry phosphate.
I watch the first vlog a blogger I follow puts up to see what they look/sound like in person. But after the first one I don’t typically watch vlogs. Like others have commented, it’s a time issue for me. I can skim posts much faster.
I do not like vlogs, and I almost never, ever, watch them. Then again, I don’t like TV or movies either. I will occasionally watch a movie with friends, but there are sparse few movies I will even watch, and I tend to try and talk friends into doing something else anyway, because I just don’t like it very much.
The reason, I think, is that hearing and seeing something requires a bit more commitment than reading something. I know for me, watching anything in video means that I have to allow images into my head, and they have a tendency to stay there for a while whether I like them or not. So I’m real picky about the kinds of things that I choose to LOOK at, in terms of images and sense impressions (words are different–obviously we look to read, but that is not the same mental process). Also, HEARING makes ideas penetrate much more deeply than just reading, I think.
So already, with vlogs, you are asking a greater commitment from your reader, you are asking for MORE space in your reader’s brain, more attention, asking them to spend more of their mental resources on what you have to get across to them. You are asking more in a vlog than a blog post.
And, a lot of readers don’t want to give more. I understand that. I don’t. Not on the internet. So, I don’t watch vlogs–unless I have a REALLY good reason to think I will like or benefit from the content, such as if I’m really interested in the person, place, or topic… but I generally take a good lot of convincing before I’ll even start one.
Actually, Lewinna, I think the exact opposite is true: “…hearing and seeing something requires a [LESS] commitment than reading something.” Which is one reason why more people watch movies than read books. It’s also the very reason why I like vlogs, it provides a break from reading. Thanks for commenting!
I don’t experience it that way–though I do have a theory why more people watch movies than read books, and it’s not because it takes less commitment in terms of mental space, but it takes less mental effort. In our visually-bombarded culture many people have developed very “lazy” imaginations. If the brain gets used to being fed images instead of producing them itself, of course it will be easier to watch films than read books.
But I wasn’t talking about that sort of mental effort–I wasn’t speaking of a commitment of effort (which is definitely a factor, as you say; I don’t do a whole lot of reading online because it IS more of a mental effort). I was talking about the opposite thing–that the imposition of images requires that one allow more foreign material into their head, as opposed to reading, where the brain provides much of its own material.
Hope that makes sense 🙂
While not addressing Lewinna’s comment directly, I think there is a bit more clarification needed with your comment on less or more commitment.
Part of that depends on what you mean by “commitment” and the medium we are talking here. There is commitment in the manner of engaging the subject. While someone watching a video isn’t necessarily not engaging the subject, most agree someone who is reading is generally more mentally engaged, and thus takes more mental commitment rather than having images and words ‘fed” to you via the visual and auditory senses.
But time commitment is what I’ve seen most people here refer to. And I do think there is a difference in time commitment between the story and the informational/self-help article/book. The first is primarily for entertainment, the later primarily for conveying information and message. Each can include the other, but the primarily point of the medium details what the time commitment for it is.
On information/self-help, scanning is an option. If you like what you see, you may read more detail. I recall from the little journalism training I’ve had that the first paragraph of a news article should give a good summary and the highlights of what the story is about. If it interest the reader, they can read on for more details. But if you just read the headlines and first paragraph of each newspaper article, if they’ve done their jobs right, you will get a good overview of the news without having the read the whole paper.
But who wants to pick up a novel and scan it? To experience the story means reading for the most part, the whole thing.
So time commitment wise, reading an article is generally faster than listening to a blog post, because most people will tend to skip parts they are not interested in, but you can’t do that with video. Also, if it is word for word the same, you can read the words faster than they can be spoken. It’s generally why I would rather read the manual than watch a tutorial on something. I have to wade through a bunch of stuff I already know to find the bit of info I’m looking for that I don’t know.
But most movies you can watch in 2-3 hours. The same book would take several hours to read. The time commitment for reading a book is much, much higher than watching the movie. So I would suggest that for novels, the movie provides much less commitment time wise for the average person, and a sense of “experiencing” it with more senses, so it comes more alive and can be as much if not more entertaining (though can be less) than the novel.
But you don’t see any popular movies based upon “The Power of Positive Thinking,” because to make that entertaining would be very difficult. It isn’t a story, it is information. And the time commitment for someone to watch a movie giving all that information would be much greater via video than it would be if you read it. Just as it would be if someone made Lord of the Rings into a movie but dramatized it while saying every word of narration and dialog in there. The movie would take days to watch and not be nearly as entertaining.
So I don’t think you can compare the two. A vlog may require less thinking on the part of the person, but as far as time goes, most people are going to be able to read faster than you can talk the same words, even if they don’t skim much. Time commitment for a video is simply more unless you’re able to do some good editing.
However, I’m not saying don’t do it. I think there are people out there who prefer that mode of getting information. And if they are entertaining at the same time, can really catch on. So it is worth doing. I just think you may have missed the point about less commitment, though she was talking about a different kind of commitment than most here have.
BTW, I did watch your video and enjoyed it. I just might watch another. 🙂
This can go either way, depending on the individual. Lewinna has expressed one aspect of the difference between hearing & seeing vs reading from her perspective.
I prefer reading books & occasional fiction on the web because I learn more about what the author really intended and I can supplement that with mental images of my own, especially for works of fiction. I also have a Kindle. Mostly its great, very convenient to carry with me, except that it makes backing up and leaping forward very time-consuming. (Just as a vlog does.)
Reading of course takes a lot of effort and many people in this instant gratification and short attention span society don’t want to be bothered with that kind of time investment. Meanwhile others, who have read voraciously since childhood, will continue to prefer the written medium with which they are most familiar. Even so, most of these people also welcome smartphones & multi-core computers with all sorts of features & peripherals for other tasks.
I happen to have a semi-unique problem. While I love to read, I have always been an exceedingly slow reader–one of the slowest in my English classes when I was growing up. My reading comprehension was fine. It just took me much longer to finish assignments. This presented grave time management problems when I hit college. I was an interdepartmental history major (all of the typical history, plus supporting courses in economics and politics) and on top of that, I had an unofficial English minor. None of my courses were based on just one text. There was the main text with anywhere from 4 to 8 supplemental paperbacks. I spent my whole college life reading any time I wasn’t in class or sleeping–just to keep up.
I am still shocked (and jealous) re how many books spec fic readers manage to get through in the course of a month! I belong to the nearly moribund Christian fandom list. In the past, its members would list all of the books they just finished reading. It astounded me. And, yeah, made me a little jealous. Do they all practice speed reading?
Several years ago, I planned to attend a con whose guest speaker was Vernor Vinge. It took me all summer to read his, “Deepness in the Sky” in prep for the con. If someone had produced a film based on his book, would I have used that as a short cut? Nope. I wanted to know what -he- wrote, not the visual version as distorted by a director.
Vlogs -are- different from this by their nature. In nearly all cases, the vlog is created first, not the written transcript. There is no director with his counter-vision of what the vlog should be like once it is posted. If I like a blogger & I’m intrigued by the subjects he/she usually covers, I am willing to give each entry time and attention. But my personal attitude still applies. Slow reader or not, I get -lots- more out of the written word. I can stop reading, go back to a former point to see how it ties in, look forward to see where the person is heading and then resume where I left off.
As I wrote originally way back at the beginning of this discussion, I have nothing against vlogs per se but I really want a transcript too. I’m willing to commit the time to watch then read both versions and, usually respond as well. The trade-off is that I visit only a few regular bloggers every week–many of them political or sociological in nature, rather than Christian fic related. My narrow focus makes my in-depth study of each blog/vlog this possible.
Bottom line? Go ahead & vlog. It’s your blog after all. But please provide a transcript if you can. And please don’t assume any of us hate tech. We probably wouldn’t be reading blogs & SF, ordering from Amazon, self-pubbing via LuLu & Createspace, or adding apps to our phones, if we did.
I’m going to go against the flow majorly on this one. I love vlogs. I follow several and find them really really entertaining and interesting. I also have very very strong suspicisions that the people on here who claim not to like them, have, in reality, not seen any of the really good ones. I would recomend conducting an investigation into people like Hank and John Green, AKA “Vlogbrothers” (one of whom is a published and widely respected children’s novelist, with a new novel comming out soon that topped the NY-Times Bestseller list without even having a cover or any advertising besides his Vlog channel on Youtube), and other people like Dan Brown (not of DaVinci code infamy) AKA “Pogobat” and other really interesting and fascinating vloggers. I recently attempted a new forray into vlogging myself. My opening vlog hasn’t gone down too well, but I can only live and learn. I think though that there is a kind of immense irony about people on here complaining about time and Vlogs. Seriously? A good vlog lasts no more than about 6 mins at the most. Most of the people I know who watch vlogs regularly claim they prefer them to written blogs, or prefer them equally, because they are…get this…faster to deal with than written blogs. Crazy!
What I would say though is that the sucess of John Green’s writing on the NY times bestseller list has I think fairly conclusively proven that Vlogging is a massively effective social media tool, so I think the way everyone on here is derriding it, is something of an echo chamber, and I’m quite glad to be the one to bounce back differently.